Melbourne and Yarra Valley

Melbourne

We arrived back into Melbourne in the evening and headed straight to Nick’s place. Nick was so kind to let us stay again for a couple of nights whilst we were back in the city. Nick was out at an event when we arrived, so we went to an Ethiopian restaurant up the road he had recommended to us. We ordered the platter of the day which came with a lamb, chicken and fish curry, as well as a couple of vegetable dals. With the curries came some flat bread which had a spongy texture kind of like a thin crumpet before its toasted. To eat you tore off some of the bread and used it to scoop up the curry; the curries were spicy and has much flavour it was such a great place and not badly priced too. We then headed back to Nick’s local for a quick schooner and then back to his place (after visiting the bottle shop for supplies). Nick was having some people back over and we enjoyed an evening of drinking and playing ‘lives’, a new card game they introduced to us (which I’ve since played with some of the family and it’s gone down very well!).

The next day we went to Queen Victoria Market with Nick to get the hot jam donuts we had tried to get before. They were tasty but could have done with a little more jam for my liking, however, I did notice later in the day Chris had jam splashed all over him, so maybe he got all the jam. Chris has another friend that lives in Melbourne, James, who he hasn’t seen for 8 years. James came to meet us for a coffee (thanks again for the coffee James and so lovely to meet you). It was such a lovely day, so bright and sunny so we headed to the botanical gardens where you get a great view of the city. After a mulled cider in a local bar we headed to meet Kath at the Marvel Stadium to see our first footy game. Kath is a St Kilda supporter who are known as the Saints and they were playing the Bulldogs. AFL – Aussie rules is so much fun to watch and so fast paced. I was shocked at all the little scraps that started when they didn’t even have the ball, but it all added to the excitement. We had a pie (covered in tomato sauce Aussie style) and beer whilst watching the match, which is novel as you can’t drink in the view of the pitch in football games at home. St Kilda won which topped off the great experience.

In the evening Nick took us to a great sky bar which had a gorgeous view of the sky line and then on to a cheap bar which did $4 pizza. We arrived and it was drag night which I loved as Ru Pauls Drag race has been my go to show on Netflix for the trip so it was like getting a live show! Thank you so much to Nick for sharing his city with us and his favourite spots, it is nice having a local showing you around.

We enjoyed a much needed lay in and then some delicious brunch before heading to Melbourne Cricket Ground to do the stadium tour. The stadium is used for cricket in the summer and then AFL in the winter. The changing rooms were so odd as they are just a empty room for the AFL games, I can imagine a kit bag being put on the floor when they are getting ready and then just doing drills in the space, not like a Premier League changing room room We then decided to try a kangaroo burger for lunch and fries with chicken salt. The Kangaroo burger tasted just like beef really but was still good, it was bit pricy so we had to share one. We then met Kath and took the train to Lilydale where her sister Debbie met us and took us to her farm.

Yarra Valley

It was so nice to be able to see so many different parts of Australia, we were so lucky Debbie allowed us to stay over. We arrived about 8pm and shared some Tasmanian sparkling wine, and Debbie put on the most incredible spread of cheeses, meats and breads. It was a clear night and the stars were so bright it was incredible, even better then the boat in Indonesia, the milky way was so clear.

The next day Kath took us on a vineyard tour through the Yarra Valley. There is a stretch of road with wineries on both sides of the road we picked 3 to visit. Most offer tasting for $5 (£2.50) and you get to try between 5 and 10 wines. If you purchased the wine you then didn’t get charged for the tasting. However, we didn’t have any spare luggage space which was lucky as the more we drank the more we decided we needed to buy some wine. We did pick up a lovely red from the Dominic winery, who is actually the son of the master wine maker for Rothschild. The views from some of the wineries over the vineyards were spectacular, we could have spent days here. We were getting a bit tipsy and needed something to soak up the wine, so we headed to a dairy farm where there was a little farm shop and free tasting of the cheeses they have on offer. We then headed back to the farm and we were introduced to more of Kath’s family and her little great nephew it was so strange hearing a child speak with an Aussie accent! Debbie took us all for a ride around the farm in her buggy, it was like a mix between a golf cart and a jeep! The land is massive and when we got towards the bottom we saw a family of kangaroos and rode along side them for a while. It was so amazing to see them in the wild in the day light bouncing away. For dinner we had lamb racks with creamy potatoes and salad and Debbie had decorated her dining room with Australian flags and koalas for our last night in Australia, such a lovely touch and dinner was delicious.

Travel Day

The next morning we got up super early to start our travel day, first was a 45 minute car ride to the train station (thank you Debbie!) then a train to Melbourne, because we were arriving into the centre prior to 7.15am it was free – result! Then an hour taxi ride to the airport, then 7 hour flight to Singapore, 2 hour lay over then a 2 hour flight to Bangkok, then 15 minute taxi to the hotel. Door-to-door our travel day was 19 hour long, the biggest one yet!

We have a full day to enjoy Bangkok then will be heading home. Australia has been amazing, we packed a lot into our 2 weeks, it was so nice to be able to see so many different sides of it and we have really loved it here you can see why people settle here, the pay is higher and the cost of living is less then the UK. I can confirm Sydney won the argument for the best city in our minds, but that’s just from a tourist point of view.

Lisa & Chris

Tasmania

The reason for our trip to Tasmania was to catch up with a friend who I haven’t seen for 5 years. Kath actually lives in a town about half an hour out of Hobart called Huonville. When she found out we were heading to South East Asia she offered to host us, show us around Tasmania and then take us to her sister’s farm in the Yarra Valley. Our flight came in at 4pm, Kath picked us up from the airport and presented us with our itinerary for the next few days. First stop was the casino in Hobart who offered a carvery, so we enjoyed our first roast dinner in 5 and half months which went down very well. Tasmania has a lot of wildlife and just up the road from Kath’s house we spotted our first kangaroo. We then went for a little drive down the back roads and spotted wallabies and paddy melons too, it’s so exciting to see them hopping about. Tasmania does unfortunately have a big problem with road kill, with wallabies and kangaroos getting knocked over and then the carnivorous animals getting hit when they feed on them. It was crazy how many dead animals there were on the roads as we drove from Hobart to Kath’s house. Kath’s mum (Joan) had asked Kath in preparation for our arrival with us being British, if we drank tea and would we expect to drink it out of a cup and saucer haha, thinking she might need to get the china out. When we arrived and were offered a drink we asked for tea, Kath’s dad (Alan) just said typical pommies. It’s been pretty chilli since we arrived in Australia it was so lovely to be greeted with a roaring log burner and such a cosy house, and of course a cuppa.

Road Trip Day 1

Kath had us up before the crack of dawn as she wanted us to make the most of our Tasmania road trip. We prepared a flask of tea and took crumpets topped with Promite and honey for breakfast. Promite is an extract like Bovril and Marmite, but without the harshness and the honey on top was a great addition. First stop was Cockle Creek which is the furthest point south you can drive in Australia, we spotted a few more animals along the way. I’m such a big kid and got pretty excited, which reminded me when I was a kid on the way to Alton Towers shouting out ‘theres one’ when we spotted a sign. We arrived just as the sun was rising over such a stunning landscape. The beaches down there were perfect, white sand and blue ocean. It was strange to be looking out to sea knowing the next landmass is actually Antarctica. There are some lovely walks you can do to get even further south and if we had the time would have been great to have done some of the beautiful nature walks on offer, maybe if you fancy a visit to Tasmania though aim for the summer. We then headed back via the coastal road to the house, where her mum had prepared a BBQ picnic for us ready for lunch.

The next stop on our road trip was Bonarong Animal Sanctuary, where Kath had reserved a BBQ area for us. We cooked up our BBQ bits for lunch in the ‘bush tucker hut’, luckily it was just burgers and sausages and no widgety grubs or kangaroo testicles. This was our first ever Australian BBQ, we didn’t have any shrimp to chuck on the barbie though, and Kath actually told us they don’t even call them shrimp, they call them prawns and it was actually a marketing campaign to encourage Americans to visit Australia – we couldn’t find any cork brimmed hats either! Chris has some Aussie work colleagues and they had told him about snag and bread which is a BBQ sausage in a slice of bread, which I thought was strange at first but actually who needs different shaped rolls anyway, just get the loaf of bread out!

After our BBQ we then went to an introductory talk about the animals. The lady told us all about wombats, Tasmanian devils and koalas as well as the work they do at the sanctuary. Most of the native animals are marsupials which means they birth their young premature and then nurse them in pouches on the outside of their body. Animals are taken in if they are orphaned if mum gets knocked over by a car and someone finds a baby in the pouch people are able to contact the sanctuary (which Kath actually did last year) or if they are sick/ injured. They will then nurse them and release them into the wild, the only exception to this is the Tasmanian devil due to them being endangered. The Tasmanian devil (which looks nothing like the cartoon by the way!) eats everything and crunches through the bones so I’m glad we didn’t get to stroke that one. Apparently it was actually the British settlers that named the animal because of the noise they make and also in the dark the blood filled ears look like devil horns, nowadays they are sadly suffering with a facial cancer which is being spread through contaminated blood whilst feeding so numbers are declining and its very rare to see them in the wild. After our little introduction we were then free to wander around and see the other animals, such as the Kookaburras, Eastern Quolls and Sulphur-crested Cockatoos.

Then we headed into kangaroo land, as soon as we walked through the gate we were greeted by so many kangaroos recognising the brown feed bags we had been given. It was such an amazing experience some of them were massive, but they were so friendly and loved a good neck scratch, and happily posed for a selfie. We even saw mums carrying joeys in their pouches – some just with a leg poking out, some with the head popping out. They also have a veterinary surgery on-site with observation glass and we saw a tiger snake in for a check-up.

To top it all Kath then surprised us with an engagement gift – an experience with sugar gliders. These tiny little fluff balls have skin flaps between their legs so they can glide when they jump. We got to feed them in their cage, it was such a lovely gift as we wouldn’t have got to see them otherwise as they hide in their little holes and are usually only active at night.

Next we headed to Nubeena where we would be spending the night in a little holiday home kindly given to us by a friend of the family. On the way we popped to a Woolworths which is the Tesco of Australia and picked up all the Aussie classic snacks (we haven’t stopped eating and must have put on all the weight we lost in Asia). We had a couple of games of cards by the fire then headed to bed. There is a big debate across Australia if barbeque or pizza flavour Shapes (a savoury cracker snack) are better, Kath is on the barbeque and was upset when we preferred the pizza, however, the vegemite cheese ones totally won the contest for us.

Road Trip Day 2

The next day we headed to the local park which over looked the beach and cooked our breakfast on the BBQ. It was pretty surprising to us that the Aussie BBQ is gas and usually a flat grill, what is awesome though is that they just have these in parks for public use, it was super clean too, I can’t imagine what it would have looked like if it was in the UK. After our eggs and bacon the first stop of the day was Port Arthur. Port Arthur was a male prison for the convicts who committed crimes for a second time, that’s after they had committed the crimes in the UK and sent to the convict colony in the first place. This prison was the first of its kind with a punishment and rehabilitation programs. It closed in 1880 as convicts were being sent to the Isle of White instead, clearly a cheaper option. As well as all the history the site holds from the time as a prison more recently in 1996 a mass shooting took place, where 35 guests and staff were murdered and 23 wounded by a lone gunman.

Next, we headed to Devils Kitchen, the Blow Hole and the Tessellated Pavements. I spotted what I first thought was a dolphin in the sea but turned out to be a seal, still pretty cool as I’d not seen one of those in the wild. Chris attempted to put the drone up at the Tessellated Pavements but it was so windy it was just getting blown about and we thought it might end up in the sea so didn’t want to risk it. We love to try the local foods so picked up some wallabie steaks to try, both the kangaroos and wallabies are culled to control numbers and these meats are a delicacy over here, however, Kath wasn’t up for going anywhere near it, after a quick google we worked out how it should be cooked (just like steak) and had it with some salad. It was delicious just like a fillet steak and so lean too, not as gamey as I had expected it to be, apparently kangaroo is more so. We then headed up the road to the local cider house for their famous apple pie and of course cider. Tasmania grows a lot of apples so cider is a popular drink here, this cider house, Willies, brewed its own onsite. It felt like we had stepped into the wild west, there was a live band playing when we arrived and if there had been a barn dance going I wouldn’t have been surprised. We enjoyed some great cider and the apple pies, a fab way to spend our last evening in Tassy. I did want to buy a T-shirt which I just thought had the outline of Tasmania (which is heart shaped) and the cider house name on it but when Chris saw it and pointed out it actually said ‘I love willies’, he didn’t think it would be appropriate. Joan & Alan got us a gift of all the Aussie classics as well as a chopping board Alan made from Huan pine, a wood that can only be found in Tasmania (and can only be taken from trees naturally felled), they had already been so generous hosting us and that was such a thoughtful gift.

Hobart

On Saturdays in Hobart there is a big market on called the Salamanca Market with all local products for sale and for sample. We headed there for about 9am and by 9.30am we were sampling shots of gin, vodka and wine; we were really struggling for luggage space on the flight which meant we couldn’t actually buy anything but we still ensured we tried everything going and actually got a little tipsy. The highlights for me was this sweet warm honey mead and a vodka made from sheep’s whey which was so smooth. For lunch we had a loaded jacket potato which soaked up the alcohol ready for our flight back to Melbourne.

Next up is the last leg of our Aussie trip with a couple of days in Melbourne and then the Yarra Valley. I don’t want to believe yet that we will be home in less than a week, the time has just gone so quickly!

Lisa & Chris xx

Melbourne

We arrived in Melbourne late in the evening and after the bus ride into the city met Chris’ friend Nick who is kindly letting us stay with him. Nick travelled South East Asia for a few months and has been working/living in Melbourne since Christmas. Nick was so kind to give us his room, we were greeted to a card and bottle of bubbly as an engagement gift. He helped us plan our day giving us hints and tips of what we should visit.

First stop was breakfast just round the corner from his apartment, which was so fancy, Chris had a banoffee porridge and I had a pastrami hash, it was so tasty, a perfect start to the day. Our stomachs are already getting used to the western diet but our waist lines are not. After breakfast we decided to do a walking tour to get a feel for the city, I really enjoy learning about places in this way. We were in a park and our guide told us that the council put plastic wrapping around some of the trees to stop the possums climbing them and destroying them, however, it’s clearly not that effective as above the wrapping was a sleeping possum. Also as we passed the old jail he told us about a famous prisoner, Ned Kelly, who just prior to getting hung said “such is life”, which has become one of the famous sayings over here in Australia. We also walked through some of the lovely lane ways around the city and then walked though Chinatown. The Chinatown here is the oldest Chinatown in the world, but only because the original buildings in San Francisco burnt down. One thing we have noticed is after the obsession of the weather in Australia, the next thing is they love to brag about things being the best or the tallest or the first in the southern hemisphere, and bearing in mind only 2% of the worlds population live in the southern hemisphere not really sure how impressive it really is lol.

After the walking tour we went to a great little coffee shop, here in Melbourne coffee is a serious business and to be fair we haven’t had a bad cup over here yet – it’s lovely and strong! Next we headed to Queen Victoria Market on one of the free inner city trams for some of the famous hot jam doughnuts, but unfortunately they were sold out by the time we got there and a lot of the stalls were closing up. We will try to get them next time.

It’s a bit colder in Melbourne than it was in Sydney, so I was really fancying some comfort food and found a cute little soup stall down one of the lanes. We then just wandered around the city until we meet Nick for the evening. Nick took us to a bar on the south bank and we had happy hour drinks, the boys had the local beer Furphy and I had a mulled wine, this Christmas in July thing is really awesome! We know a few other people that are working in Melbourne at the moment too and had arrange to meet up. Jordon wasn’t well, but Sam came along to meet us for a drink after work. It was great all catching up and sharing stories of our travels. After drinks we said goodbye to Sam and headed to Chinatown for dinner. Nick took us to a great place and the food was fantastic, a lot of the places offer a bring your own drinks service so we brought along the Prosecco Nick had got for us and toasted our engagement again. We then headed back to the apartment and stopped at Nick’s local along the way. The boys and a pint and I had a schooner which is a 3/4 pint, which is the perfect size for me as a pint is a little to big and a half is too small, I’m sounding like Goldilocks now!

The next morning we met with Nick at the University of Melbourne where he works and had a little tour around. It’s been dubbed the Hogwarts of Melbourne and you can see why, some of the original buildings are stunning. After some breakie we got an Uber to the airport where we are heading to Tasmania and staying with my friend Kath who I haven’t seen for 5 years!

I think it’s unfair to judge the Melbourne v Sydney comparison at such an early stage, we are back in Melbourne again after Tassy before heading to the Yarra Valley, so will let you know our full thoughts after the next visit.

Lisa & Chris xx

Sydney

We landed in a chilly Sydney at around 7am and took a short train ride into the city centre. We couldn’t check into our hostel until the afternoon, so found a little cafe across a small park from the station to have a coffee and breakfast. As we walked across the park it was cool to see some birds we’ve never seen before, they had such long beaks and are called ibis birds (although we found out later that the locals call them bin chickens!).

We then took a stroll down through Paddy’s Market and chinatown to Darling Harbour. This was a lovely little harbour surrounded by cafes and restaurants so we sat in the sun for a while near the water, and then popped in to a cafe for another coffee. There was also a stand promoting Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and we managed to get a free dip in their chocolate fountain. To save a bit of money we decided to walk to our hostel which was tiring with a 20kg backpack (for flights I put a lot of Lisa’s stuff into my bag so we only have to pay to check in one bag)! We stayed near Kings Cross which is about a 20 min walk from the city, so a pretty decent location for the price. It was also the most stereotypical backpacker place we’ve stayed at so far – although we were in a private room and mainly kept ourselves to ourselves. The odd announcement about cleaning and returning frying pans over a hostel wide speaker system did crack us up.

In the afternoon we went on a walking tour around the city, then stopped at a Christmas market in the evening for mulled wine and bratwurst. Yes you read that right, a Christmas market! It’s winter in Australia so I guess it makes sense they would do this – they even had fake snow! We also saw the Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge for the first time; they are so iconic it was very cool seeing them!

Bondi beach

The next morning we headed straight to Bondi (train to Bondi Junction and then bus the rest of the way) as we had a surf lesson booked. I was so impressed with Bondi Beach, I’d (unfairly) presumed it wouldn’t be that great as a city beach and the standard place all backpackers go, but I have to say it’s one of the best beaches I’ve seen on the whole of my travels! We had some brekkie nearby and then went for our lesson. Our instructor was called Ilias and he first took us through the technique on the beach so we could get some muscle memory before we went into the sea. It’s actually quite hard to catch a wave, you have to be paddling really fast otherwise it just sweeps under you, so at first we’d start by lying on the board and he’d give us a big push as the wave comes. It was fairly tricky to start with, but by the end of the 2 hour session we’d manage to stand up and ride a few waves – it does feel so good when you get it right. I think if I lived there I’d definitely take up surfing as a hobby, we both enjoyed it so much. 2 hours was enough though as by the end I was getting a bit cold and had swallowed enough sea water for one day.

After the lesson we had some fish (barramundi) and chips over looking the beach and then walked around the coastal path to another beach called Bronte (and past Tamarama Beach). Bronte was lovely too, although we didn’t spend too much time here and took the bus back to Bondi Junction and the city.

In the evening we went for a lovely meal in Cafe Sydney which is a fancy restaurant overlooking the Sydney Harbour Bridge. I had steak and Lisa had some lamb followed by some delicious rich chocolate desserts, it was so nice having some fancy western food for the first time in ages! Obviously this was way above backpacker budget, but my parents had given us some money for dinner, so thank you to them for that!

Manly beach

We were intended to go to the Blue Mountains this morning and Manly the following day, but we woke up a bit late and also realised we’d got confused about the day we were leaving so had an extra day, so decided to go to Manly. It’s about a 30 minute ferry crossing from Central Quay, has a nice little town and another lovely beach.We didn’t do too much while we were here, just bought a few souvenirs, had a few coffees and enjoyed the views across the beach. Apparently this was named ‘Manly’ Beach by the British as when they ‘discovered’ Australia they thought the aboriginal people from this area were very muscly. The aboriginals had a plan to stop the British here – the local women seduced the British while the men hid in bushes with spears. Unfortunately for them the Brits had guns, so their plan wasn’t very successful!

It was so windy and cold on the boat back into Sydney harbour but we really wanted to see the iconic views of the opera house and bridge, so stayed on the outside deck for the journey. Australians like to discuss the weather just as much as us brits, however, they are much better with the facts by giving us details on the wind direction and the reason behind the cold weather.

Blue Mountains

On Sunday in Sydney, all travel is limited to $2.70 if you use an Opal card (similar to our Oyster card). This meant our 2 hour train journey to the Blue Mountains and back cost about £1.50 each – such a bargain! London has a lot to learn from this! We also could have used all the local buses in the blue mountains and as much of the underground in the city as we wanted and it would have cost no more.

We arrived in a town called Katoomba and walked to the main viewing area of the three sisters, which is the most iconic view/photo of the Blue Mountains. It was so cold and we don’t have many warm clothes so we stopped at an Aldi on the way and picked up a few mid-aisle bargains to keep us cosy. From this (very crowded) viewpoint we walked one of the trails through to the next town called Leura. There were some amazing vast views on the way and a lovely waterfall too. They are called the Blue Mountains as all the eucalyptus trees emit oils into the air which gives a blue haze, you can see this as you look into the distance and the tinge gets darker the further you look.

The last day we had a walk around the Royal Botanical Gardens and went back to Darling Harbour to chill out with a coffee enjoying the ambience before we had to go to the airport. We have both absolutely loved Sydney, it is such a green, clean, beautiful city with some amazing landmarks. Then it has incredible beaches and amazing landscapes a short journey away – I can see why so many people who visit this place end up staying, I think I’d be tempted if I was a bit younger and it wasn’t so far away from friends and family!

Next up is Melbourne, which I have also only heard amazing things about. There is a lot of rivalry between Melbourne and Sydney as to which is the best city, so I’m really looking forward to seeing what Melbs has to offer. We also learnt that when all the states decided to join as a single country these two cities were arguing as to which should be the capital – to settle it they built a small new city between them and called it Canberra.

Chris and Lisa x